Tips

Flaxseed is also know as linseed, and comes in brown and gold-coloured varieties. I prefer the golden flaxseed, although the taste difference is pretty subtle and they’re very similar nutritionally.

You can buy flaxseed meal pre-ground, or you can make it yourself in your coffee grinder or a high-speed blender. Either way, make sure it’s always refrigerated to stop the flaxseed oils from going rancid, which they do very rapidly once the seeds are ground.

You can use your favourite liquid soy product for these raw flax crackers. I’ve made them with braggs and tamari, and they both work well.

You can use your favourite liquid sweetener for these crackers as well. I tend to use agave nectar, but maple syrup (which is not raw), or coconut nectar, yacon syrup or date paste could work equally well.

The onion and garlic powder are not raw, but they do add a special something to the final flavour. I’ve only added a small amount, because I don’t like a really strong garlic or onion flavour (and it makes them more versatile too), but you can play with the amounts if you want a stronger savoury flavour.

The key to making these crackers work is letting them sit until they just reach the right consistency. Too short, and the water will settle out of the mix once you spread it on the tray. Too long and you’ll have a hard time getting it spread thinly enough. So, just leave it for long enough so that the mix starts to hold its shape after you stir it (see the photo above in Step 1). This is one of those occasions where wandering off and forgetting about it will not turn out well, trust me.

You could also dehydrate these in your oven set to the lowest temperature possible, with the door wedged open and the fan running. They won’t be raw, but they’ll still be much healthier than the alternatives.

I keep forgetting to flip my crackers halfway through, and I’ve discovered that it really doesn’t make a huge difference. So if you’re lazy like me, you can just skip this step.

If you don’t plan on eating these straight away, you could store them in the fridge or freezer and just take them out as you need them, although they never last long enough around our house for me to try this out.

Variations

You can mix up the flavourings for these flax crackers as much as you like. You could add dried or fresh herbs, chili powder, curry powder or even some powdered superfood greens if you like. The flaxseeds do have a very neutral taste, so you can get as creative as you like.

You can make these flax crackers perfectly plain if you like. Just leave out the braggs, agave, garlic and onion powder. The crackers may taste a little bland, but once you add super-tasty toppings to them, you won’t even notice!

You can also mix in the leftover pulp from making juice to add extra fibre and more flavour.

FAQs

Is is true that you can’t get nutrients out of whole flaxseeds?

The hard outer coating of flaxseeds, combined with their small size, can make it hard for your body to get all of the valuable nutrients out of them.

Because of this, it is possible for whole flaxseeds to pass through your digestive system unaltered.

Although this is a bit wasteful, it doesn’t cause any problems, unless you find your digestive system is irritated by whole flax seeds.

To get the most out of your raw flaxseed crackers, make sure to chew them thoroughly or consider pre-soaking the seeds to make the shells softer.

Do I need to pre-soak the flaxseeds?

Flaxseeds contain enzyme inhibitors that make it hard for your body to access all of the nutrients in them, and also softens their hard shiny coating.

Soaking your flaxseeds can make the valuable nutrients in flaxseed more accessible.

Although I’ve never pre-soaked my flaxseeds, some of my readers have had great success using pre-soaked flaxseeds, either drained or straight into the blender without any additional meal.

There’s nothing wrong with not pre-soaking your flaxseeds if you don’t have the time or patience.

How can I make these without a dehydrator?

If you don’t have a dehydrator, there’s a few different ways you can dry these crackers.

The simplest option is to use your oven, although they won’t be raw any longer.

If you use your oven, you have two options – cook them outright, or set your oven as low as possible and wedge the door open with the fan running.

To cook them outright, simply spread the mix on baking paper on a flay tray, score, and cook them at 180°C (375°F) for around 15 minutes, then flip and cook for another 5-10 minutes or until completely dry.

Why isn’t my flaxseed mixture thickening up?

If you find that your flaxseed mixture is not thickening up after the recommended 10-15 minutes, leave for a little longer, and keep stirring.

If another 10-15 minutes doesn’t make any difference, and your mix is still runny, your flax seeds might be too old.

Although it’s never happened to me, one of my readers discovered this the hard way, and found that buying fresh flaxseeds made everything work perfectly.

My flax crackers have a funny colour on one side. Is this normal?

Yes, it is!

If your crackers have a brown colour or a white sheen on one side, rest assured that this is absolutely normal.

As the crackers dry, the gummy flaxseed liquid settles down to the bottom and then dries in a funny “snail trail” like layer.

Don’t worry if this happens to you, because it’s all perfectly safe to eat.

Budget

Here’s roughly how much these raw flax crackers cost me to make:

Ingredient

Amount

Price

Cost

TOTAL

323g

$10.68 / kg

$3.45

Golden flaxseed

150g

$15 / kg

$2.25

Golden flaxseed meal

18g

$10 / kg

$0.27

Agave nectar

15ml

$29 / L

$0.44

Tamari

15ml

$27 / L

$0.41

Onion powder

0.3g

$117 / kg

$0.04

Garlic powder

0.3g

$124 / kg

$0.04

Water

110g

0.4c / L

$0.00

Keep in mind:

All prices are in Australian dollars

Your costs may vary quite a bit depending on whether you buy in small or large quantities, as conventional or organic, and the time of year.

Budget Notes

These flax crackers are actually pretty inexpensive to make, at just over $10 a kilo (before dehydration). Even after dehydration, they’re around $17 a kilo, which is still cheaper than many processed chips and crackers (and they’re a lot better for you).

You might be able to make these crackers even more inexpensive by using brown flaxseed instead of golden flaxseed, depending on the relative costs. Where I live, brown linseeds cost about 10% less than gold, so it’s definitely worth checking out.

My inspiration

I was buying these amazing flax crackers by Nushie’s Natural from my local health food shop and the kids loved them, but they were often unavailable, so I was inspired to have a go at making my own.

I did try some recipes that I found online, but once again I found the flavours either too complex or too strong, so I went back to basics and fiddled with my recipe until I was happy with it.

What others are saying...

Can I soak the Raw Golden Flaxseed overnight, in order to reduce the Enzyme inhibitors? The next day, i will rinse and drain these seeds and follow your recipe to make the Raw Flaxseed Crackers? Will these seeds, if soak overnight, become too soft and not suitable to make this Crackers? Pls advice.
Thank.

Flax seeds are not really suited to being soaked and drained, as they go gooey very quickly in water, and it’s almost impossible to separate any liquid from the seeds. I would not recommend soaking them overnight for this recipe, as they will become too soft.

If you are concerned about enzyme inhibitors, you could try adding extra water to the recipe, and then allowing it to sit for longer until it thickens up sufficiently, so that it has more of a chance to soak. But you can’t really rinse off the soak water from flax seeds, so I’m not sure if this will help at all with reducing the enzyme inhibitors.

I always soak the seeds overnight, and it works, but it takes longer to dehydrate. I use 1cup water and 1 cup linseed, then add -sometimes – sesame and sunflower seeds, soaked and drained, … Some soaking right now in the kitchen ?… And will make some pea, cashew and mint dip to spread on top . X

I found this recipe because a friend of mine made a similar recipe but added Essante Organics Earth Greens I have never tried dehydrated crackers and I honestly couldn’t believe how good they were. I can’t wait to make these… These greens are alkalizing, not processed with heat and completely organic. Julie Cameron :)

I made flax seed crackers in the oven at 170 for 8 hours. flipping after 6 hours. but I left the parchment paper on them. When I peeled them off, it seems to me there is a very thin layer left on the cracker. The side on the parchment paper is a different colour. Are they safe to eat?

I think I understand what you’re asking. Please correct me if I’m barking up the wrong tree with my explanation.

When I make flax crackers, the side that was against my teflex sheets in my dehydrator looks different from the side that was uppermost. There’s kind of a white sheen on the underside, which I think comes from the gelatinous liquid that surrounds the whole flax seeds, settling at the bottom and then drying (it almost looks like dried snail-trails LOL). The top side doesn’t have any of this at all, and looks like what you can see in my photos.

Hi Nikki,
I am a beginner in Raw food / Vegan cooking so please bear with me…
Very much like to try to make some “Raw Flax Crackers” but rarely used an electric oven and have no dehydrator. So, per your instructions above, does one needs to use “parchment paper” or just a baking tray is ok to turn these “Raw Flax Crackers” from liquid form to solid crackers?
Thanks,
Leo

I haven’t tried doing it in the oven myself, but I would say that using parchment paper would make it easier to get off the tray, turn over and clean up afterwards. You could use any kind of baking or oven-proof paper, I’m sure.

Dear Nikki,
Did a test trail on your above recipe BUT at HALF volume only and used the Oven at “200°C (400°F) for 15-20 minutes” – as suggested above. After about 20 minutes, I found the bottom of the crackers are sticky and the parchment paper has some brownish color on it (normal?). Did I use too much “agave”? Now, a question on storage. How should the cooked crackers be stored and how long can it be stored?
BTW, at the moment, I stored it in an air-tight container at room temperature in a dark room where I store my other seeds and beans and the crackers tasted nice!
Thx,
Leo

I think a sticky underside and brown on the parchment is normal. You might find that flipping them over them halfway through helps with that.

If your crackers are fully dry (ie they’re crunchy, not chewy) then you can store them at room temperature, especially if you eat them within a week or two. The oils in the flax meal will degrade over time, so if you want to keep them as fresh and nutritious as possible, you can store them in the fridge, but it’s totally up to you.

I think I’ve left mine lying around in an air-tight container for months at room temperature and they seemed OK. I’m not saying it’s ideal to do this, but it can be done ;)

I did a raw diet for a little while (as a type of cleanse/system reset). I used the book LIVING ON LIVE FOOD and it had an excellent selection of flax cracker recipes, both sweet and savory. Soaking the seeds overnight worked perfectly and did not require the use of the meal. After soaking, don’t rinse them…just blend them for a few minutes in a food processor along with your added flavors – for sweet I blended in a bit of banana – and for savory I added all the normal things listed above. In order to maintain the crackers in a state of “live food” never heat over about 190F. I also flipped my crackers over after about 8 to 12 hours (overnight works really well) and continued to dry the bottom side (face up) until the cracker was well and truly crunchy right through. Oh, the scope!

I’m just curious as to why you’re adding sweetener. I’m assuming that it’s a taste thing, so as I want to use these for savoury spreads etc., I plan to leave it out, but just thought I’d check in case there’s a scientific reason to include it. E.g. I know when making bread that yeast needs some sugar to feed on … there doesn’t seem any comparable reason here, so I guess you just like it to have a sweet taste??

You’re absolutely right – there’s no need at all to add sweetener. I did it because my recipe was based on the ingredients in the crackers I was trying to reproduce, and it does help to balance out the salty and savoury flavours. But you can adjust the amount of any or all of the flavourings to suit your taste buds.

In fact, the only necessary ingredients are flax seeds, flax meal and water, and the rest is up to you. And these days, as I reduce the amount of sugars in my diet, I’d be inclined to start there too (although I’ve never done it so I don’t know how it tastes). Let me know how it goes :)

Hi. I’m making these right now, but I’m wondering if I did something wrong. I am at the ‘wait for the stuff to thicken in the bowl’ part, but mine are just – not thickening. I followed the recipe exactly. I ground my own flaxseed meal (2 TBSP, as instructed), and added that with the seeds and other ingredients. It’s been almost an hour, and the bowl still looks pretty much like it did when I started. Any idea why my seeds aren’t getting gummy?

To keep things raw, your dehydrator needs to be set at 45°C or below. Some people use 40°C as “raw”, but even if your dehydrator is set to 45°C, the chances of your food getting up to that temperature are quite low. If you’re at all concerned, you can always use a hoovy-groovy infrared thermometer to check the temperature of your crackers. (I’ve added this info to the recipe now too :) )

I thought I read that the nutrients in flax seed can’t be absorbed unless they’re ground up into meal. Do you keep some whole just for the look or do they still have nutritional benefit? I’ve been looking online but haven’t found a good answer yet. Thank you for the recipe too, we’re excited to start using our dehydrator again!

It’s true that you can’t access the nutrients in flaxseed unless they’re broken up, but that’s true of many foods. Grinding them definitely helps with that.

Chewing your flax seed crackers thoroughly will also help to break up the flaxseeds so that they can be properly digested, although you may still find some seeds passing through undigested, especially because flaxseeds are so small so it’s easy for them to miss being broken up.

You can still get some benefit from the mucilage that comes out of whole seeds when they come into contact with liquids, but you’re not getting the full range of nutrients from them like this.

I leave them whole for the textural experience. Crackers make entirely from flax meal have a very different taste and consistency, which would be an entirely different recipe.

Keep in mind that you’re often likely to be eating these with other foods, in place of less nutritious crackers, so you’re getting other benefits along with them.

I don’t believe there’s any harm in eating unbroken flax seeds, unless you find that they irritate your digestive system, but you’ll have to play around with it and see what works for you.

My favourite cookbooks

My favourite kitchen gadgets

Having the right gadgets has totally changed my experience in the kitchen.

High-speed blender

I use my Vitamix blender at least 2-3 times EVERY day. It's fast, so versatile and super quick and easy to clean. I couldn't live without mine. I absolutely love it!

Food processor

I use my powerful food processor three or four times a week, for making nut butters, desserts, sauces, burgers and more. It's great for large batches and dishes that need texture and just makes "cooking" so much faster.

Dehydrator

I use my 5-tray Excalibur dehydrator once or twice a week, for crackers, breads, biscuits, cakes or even just for thawing things. It does an awesome job and makes eating raw SO much easier.

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